1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cooler for an electronic device, for cooling an exothermic member arranged in the case of the electronic device by releasing the heat of the exothermic member through a heat pipe.
2. Related Art
In the field of computers, the outputs of electronic elements such as a CPU are increased in the prior art in accordance with an increase in the number of functions and a rise in the processing rate. As an example of the device for cooling the electronic elements, there is known a cooling device which is constructed by mounting a micro fan in the case of a personal use computer (as will be called the "personal computer"), to release the heat of the electronic elements to the outside of the case by the air flow established by the micro fan.
In the prior art, there is also known a cooling device which is constructed by connecting one end portion of a heat pipe in a heat transferable manner to the electronic elements and holding the other end portion in contact with an electromagnetic shield plate of an aluminum plate mounted on the back face (i,e., the face at the computer case) of the computer, to provide a radiation face.
On the other hand, the reductions in the size and weight of the computer are earnestly desired in recent years. This has extremely restricted the space for the cooling device to occupy the inside of the computer case.
However, the cooling device using the micro fan is constructed to circulate the air in the case space in which the numerous parts are densely mounted. These numerous parts raise serious resistances to the air flow so that the air flow is blocked to confine the heat in the case. On the other hand, the air heated by the hot parts comes into contact with the remaining parts, located downstream, so that these downstream parts are inevitably heated.
These disadvantages can be eliminated if the fan for establishing the cooling air flow is given a high capacity. As this capacity increases, however, the size of the fan is enlarged so much as to fail to match the personal computer which is desired to reduce its size and weight.
In the cooling device adopting the heat pipe, on the contrary, the heat, as generated by the electronic elements, is transferred by the heat pipe to the electromagnetic shield plate in the case until it is released to the outside from the shield plate. As a result, the heat to be released from the shield plate is partially returned to and confined inside the case. This raises a problem that the existing parts other than the electronic elements are inevitably heated.